Is Jesus a Republican or Democrat?

(Apologies to Tony Campolo for copying his book title.)

The question is really the wrong question to be asking for it carries a huge assumption.  It assumes Jesus would pick a political party and endorse it.  I find little evidence in the life of Jesus to suggest He would do such a thing.

As we look through the Gospels, we see the politics of Jesus emerge.  He was not interested in the status quo of the day.  He was not interested in endorsing any of the vying power structures governing first century Palestine.  He came to introduce a new player in the game: the Kingdom of God.

This Kingdom was unlike any kingdom that had gone before or was in place, and Jesus' teachings whetted our appetites for what that Kingdom would be like:

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ (Matthew 13:31-33)

44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.  (Matthew 13:44-49)

I could list a whole lot more, but that would take too much time.  Books have been written on the subject, but suffice to say, Jesus painted pictures with enough detail to give us some ideas but with enough of a broad brush to leave quite a bit to the imagination.  He couldn't make it perfectly concrete because we're talking about God's rule.  It would mean conveying the perfect nature of God to humanity, and we are incapable of handling that sort of perfection.  We just can't grasp it.  All we can get are glimpses.  And Jesus gave us those glimpses. 

He also did so through His actions.  As we read the Gospels, we see who Jesus associated with:

He moved freely among the poor and sick.  He brought healing to those who were outcast and helped them reconnect with their communities.  He rubbed elbows with the rich and powerful (Zacchaeus, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus) .  He ate with tax collectors and Pharisees.  Jesus never limited God's Kingdom to one social strata.  He brought it into their midst, invited them to become a part of it, and allowed folks to choose whether or not they could or would.

As He picked His closest 12, Jesus chose from the various strata of Jewish society:

He picked common, everyday workers (the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James and John).
He picked one who cooperated with the Roman power structure to gain wealth and status (Matthew the tax collector).
He picked one who was in complete opposition to the powers that be and was using violence to overthrow them (Simon the Zealot).

Jesus invited people to abandon the social constructs of the day and their warped view of who was and wasn't acceptable, and He invited them to join a different reality where all would practice forgiveness (because they had been forgiven), where turning the other cheek replaced an eye for an eye, where the poor were provided for, where sins were judged but souls were not, where loving one's enemies was not only acceptable but expected, and where death was not feared.  Even this is far too small a summary.  The reality of the Kingdom of God goes much further and calls into question every structure of governance we have ever had on this planet.

It is with this background that we now turn to the original question: Is Jesus a Republican or Democrat?  Well, to answer one way or another would assume that either Republicans or Democrats have somehow encapsulated in their political platforms the totality of the Kingdom of God.  Can anyone honestly say that either party has done this or even come close? 

Do you think Jesus would cast His vote for political parties which spend millions upon millions of dollars to obtain power?  Do you think Jesus would cast His vote for political parties which demean and malign one another and cast blame at one another for the perceived ills of society?  Do you think Jesus would cast His vote for political parties who hold the U.S. Constitution in higher regard than God's Word?

Jesus has one political persuasion: The Kingdom of God.  That's the reality He worked for and introduced when He was on earth.  That's the reality He calls Christians to work toward today.  As far as I am concerned, He wouldn't align Himself with any political party, but He would say to those political parties--and to us as well, "Follow me."

And leaving our nets, our tax booths, our swords, our political affiliations, or what have you, I'd hope we'd do it.